GB2326906A

GB2326906A - Water butt

Info

Publication number: GB2326906A
Application number: GB9714211A
Authority: GB
Inventors: John Dale Nixon
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1997-07-04
Filing date: 1997-07-04
Publication date: 1999-01-06
Also published as: GB9714211D0

Description

IMPROVED WATER BUTT Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an improved water butt for the collection of rainwater.

Background to the Invention In recent years, numerous attempts have been made to improve the efficiency of the humble domestic water butt. The need for more widespread usage of water butts is clearly on the rise in view of the fact that, notwithstanding occasional seasonal down pours, water shortage in the summer months remains a major problem throughout the United Kingdom and that since privatisation, many customers now pay on a metered basis and would certainly benefit from a ready source of effectively free water for irrigating their gardens.

During drought periods and hosepipe bans, many keen gardeners have been obliged to either pay supplements for hosepipe usage or incur the major inconvenience of having to carry heavy watering cans of, for example, soiled bath and dishwater to the extremities of their garden. The water butt provides a useful source of Ufree" rainwater that is ostensibly less likely to carry any phytotoxic materials than is soiled bathwater and which, being extemaly positioned, is more readily accessible to the garden.

A fundamental problem with the water butt is, however, that it is limited in capacity most especially where external space is restricted and can be quickly drained during a period of prolonged drought. Secondly, although proposals have been made in the past to provide pumping facilities to pressurise the water in a water butt for hose delivery, there have, to date, been no effective, economical practical propositions made for enhanced water delivery.

Conventionally, therefore, it remains necessary to distribute the water from a water butt by means of a watering can or the like.

The conventional barrel-shaped water butt suffers the further major problem of being a substantial major additional item of expense, most especially where any useful capacity is required.

It is a general objective of the present invention to provide a water butt facility that overcomes these major drawbacks of the prior art designs, providing a simple economical design that is compact and provides a greater than conventional capacity with an enhanced rate of delivery.

Summary of the Invention in accordance with the present invention, there is provided a water butt facility which comprises a water storage tank adapted to store rainwater from a gutter or drainpipe extending down the wall of a building, the storage tank having a diverter fitted thereto, in use, to divert rainwater thereinto from the downpipe and having a base to stand the storage tank upon the ground, in use, and adapted to be mounted to the wall of the building at one or more positions up the height of the storage tank, the height of the storage tank being substantially greater than twice the depth of the storage tank from front to back in the direction away from the wall.

The depth of the tank front-to-back is suitably 300mm or less, preferably 200mm or less or even 100mum or less.

3y contrast, the height dimension of the storage tank is suitably substantially in excess of 1520mm (5 feet) and preferably in excess of 1830mm (6) feet up to the height of the building at which the rainwater is initially collected, which will commonly be the eaves of the building's roof - of the order of 4877mm (16 feet).

The storage tank suitably has a flat rear face that mounts directly against the wall in order to maximise storage capacity whilst minimising the extent to which the storage tank protrudes away from the wall.

By virtue of its considerable height, the storage tank has a much greater hydrostatic head of water, pressurising delivery flow and thereby giving rise to the potential for delivery along a significant length of hosing pipe to the garden.

In contrast to conventional water butt design, the water butt facility of the present invention enables many gallons of water to be stored with minimal incursion into the space surrounding the building.

In a yet further advance, according to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided a water butt facility which comprises a storage tank with an integral length of guttering downpipe built into the wall of the tank. In this aspect, there is a major advantage in the cost saving over provision of an independent downpipe and water storage tank, there is a reduction in the space required for the two elements and a major reduction in the number of wall fixings to hold the two elements in place against the wall. It will, therefore, be appreciated that this arrangement is overwhelmingly superior to existing butt facility designs.

Brief Description of the Drawings Preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be more particularly described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein: Figure 1 is a front perspective view of a first preferred embodiment of the present invention installed against a wall; and Figure 2 is a front perspective view of a second preferred embodiment installed against a wall.

Description of the Preferred Embodiments: Referring firstly to Figure 1, the embodiments shown therein comprises a groundstanding water storage tank 1 fixed to a wall 2 adjacent a rainwater downpipe 3.

A substantially conventional diverter 4 is provided at or near the upper end of the storage tank 1 to divert the flow of water from the downpipe 3 into the water tank 1 until the water tank is substantially full.

As will be seen, the illustrated design of tank is generally rectangular in cross-section having a generally shallow front-to-rear depth dimension D which is suitably of the order of 300mm or less.

The flattened back wall of the storage tank 1 is held closely against the wall 2 by fixing screws 5 mounted at intervals up the height of the tank 1.

The fixing screws are suitably of conventional type and may, as necessary, be bedded into rawl plugs in the bricks or mortar or other material of which the wall 2 is constructed.

The preferred material of construction of the tank 1 comprises a lightweight rigid and robust plastics material such as nylon and which is suitably moulded to incorporate the mounting flanges 6 through which the screws 5 project to fix the tank 1 to the wall 2.

In the illustrated embodiment the tank 1 extends substantially the full length of the downpipe 3 from the gutter 7 - a height which may be of the order of 16 feet or more.

The width of the tank 1 is suitably selected to maximise the capacity of the tank 1. It need not be particularly great where the tank 1 extends up to the high eaves of a house but is suitably greater for those situations where the vertical space for installation is more limited such as, for example, on a low-roofed extension or a bungalow.

In the illustrated installation, the tank 1 need only have a width of 300mm to achieve a capacity equivalent to that of a larger conventional water butt, when given the 300mm depth dimension and 16 foot height dimension.

The preferred configuration maximises the height dimension relative to the width and depth dimensions in order to maximise the head of water above the outlet tap 8 at the base 9 of the tank 1. This then optimises the pressure and hence rate of flow of water from the tank and the ability to deliver via a hose.

Referring now to the second embodiment illustrated in Figure 2, this has a water storage tank 1' which is integral with the rainwater downpipe 3'. In this embodiment the water storage tank 11 has a divider wall 11 that extends from the base of the tank 11 to shortly below the top of the tank 1' partitioning the tank 11 to provide a water storage part 10 and a down pipe part 20. Rainwater passes first into the storage part 10 and then overflows the divider wall 11 and exits via the downpipe portion 20. Here there is no need for provision of a diverter to divert the rainwater downflow into the tank 1 to fill the tank 1 since the rainwater directly enters the storage tank.

As mentioned above, this integral design has major advantages over any existing design of rainwater collection system not only in terms of its compactness and economy of manufacture, but also by the fact that it minimises the number of fixings to install the facility in place and during installation represents little more inconvenience than installing a plastics downpipe alone.

This design was developed initially for installation on new building sites but it is, of course. equally suitable where old iron downpipes are in need of replacement with new plastic pipework. Indeed, the benefits of the system may even be appreciated when replacing an existing plastics downpipe. Whenever a conventional water butt is installed it is always necessary to cut into the pipework to install the diverter and accordingly the additional work necessary to replace the whole downpipe in the process is not necessarily going to lead to a great increase in installation cost.

To facilitate transportation of the taller water storage tanks they are suitably formed in short lengths (longitudinal sections) that may be slotted together when assembled on site.

The benefits of the system of the present invention are numerous and wide ranging as will be appreciated.

Although described above with respect to two preferred embodiments, numerous alternative embodiments within the scope of the invention are conceivable.

In one variant of the general designs the tank may, for example, have a generally cylindrical cross-section rather than rectangular or may have feet at its base rather than stand directly on a flat base.

Claims

1. A water butt facility which comprises a water storage tank adapted to store rainwater from a gutter or drainpipe extending down the wall of a building, the storage tank having a diverter fitted thereto, in use, to divert rainwater thereinto from the downpipe and having a base to stand the storage tank upon the ground, in use, and adapted to be fixed to the wall of the building at one or more positions up the height of the storage tank, the height of the storage tank being substantially greater than twice the depth of the storage tank from front to back in the direction away from the wall.

2. A water butt facility as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the depth of the tank front-to-back is 300mm or less.

3. A water butt facility as claimed in Claim 1 or Claim 2 wherein, the height dimension of the storage tank is substantially in excess of 1520mm (5 feet) and preferably in excess of 1830mm (6 feet) up to the height of the building at which the rainwater is initially collected.

4. A water butt facility as claimed in any preceding Claim, wherein the storage tank has a flat rear face that mounts directly against the wall.

5. A water butt facility as claimed in any preceding Claim, wherein the tank has an outlet tap that is adapted to be coupled to a hosepipe.

6. A water butt facility which comprises a storage tank with an integral length of guttering downpipe in the wall of the tank.

7. A water butt facility as claimed in any preceding Claim, wherein the storage tank is formed in longitudinal sections for ease of transportation and which are assembled on-site.

8. A water butt facility substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to any suitable combination of the accompanying drawings.